Thanksgiving Bride 1948

Happy Thanksgiving Readers,

In 1948, a bride embraces a Thanksgiving theme for her wedding. Feathers abound.

Click here for a fun Thanksgiving wedding.

Enjoy the holiday and may our thankfulness be an every day thing.

Donna

Day Twenty-Two Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is the twenty-second day of our writing challenge.

November 22: It’s Thanksgiving Day. Maybe you hadn’t planned to write today. But just think: after the big meal, most folks are either going to be asleep or watching a football game or three. Bring your laptop or notepad into the TV room, and write while the game is going on. If you miss a great play, you’ll see it again on the replays or the eleven o’clock news. Postpone your nap for thirty minutes. Get the words done, and then the rest of the day is yours.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Twenty-One Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day twenty-one of our writing challenge.

November 21: Falling behind? Look at your schedule for ways to increase the time available. Maybe you need to write on a day you hadn’t planned. Spending a lot of time with the kids at the pool or football or other sports? Even if you can’t type on a laptop, you can write the story longhand. Look for reasons to succeed, not reasons to fail.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Twenty Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day twenty of our writing challenge.

November 20: You should be past 30,000 words now. If not, you’ll need to adjust your daily word count so you can meet your 50,000 word goal within the next ten days. That’s okay. I once started NaNoWriMo on the 11th of November and had my 50,000 words by the end of the day on the 30th. My word count was like 4500 a day, and I didn’t write on Sundays at that time.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Nineteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day nineteen of our writing challenge.

November 19: Feel like you’re running out of words? Maybe you are. Just as an athlete has to refuel when in training and competition, a writer needs to refuel the words. Take an extra 15 minutes today and read some of that novel you’ve had at your bedside all month and been too tired to read. Read a newspaper. Take a glance at some research books on your bookshelf. But just 15 minutes. Any more than that and you’ll get so involved you won’t have time to write. Now go and write those words.

Happy Writing,

Donna

Day Eighteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day eighteen in our writing challenge.

November 18: Today I give you permission to read your first chapter, but you must keep your hands in your pockets while you do that, because you aren’t allowed to change even word one. But I want to remind yourself of the excitement you first had when you started writing this story. Then write new words.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Seventeen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day seventeen in our writing challenge.

November 17: Take a few minutes today to jot down some of your main characters’ history. Where they were born, what they liked in school, when they gave their first boy-girl kiss, who broke their heart. All the good stuff that will never make it in your book but is important for you to know. And then write those 1666 words.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Sixteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day sixteen of our writing challenge.

November 16: Find somewhere different to write today, just to break the monotony. Go to the library, a coffee shop, the bus station, a park. If you’ve been writing in your bedroom, write in the living room. Sit in the hallway of your apartment building.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Fifteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day fifteen of our writing challenge.

November 15: Staying the course can be easy at first and then other things call for your attention, like laundry, cleaning, friends who miss you, family who want to take a picture of you because they forget what you look like. Ignore them all while you’re writing, but know that this month will soon be over and you’ll return to your regular life, so be nice to them. Smile when they stick their head in your writing area.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Fourteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day fourteen of our writing challenge.

November 14: End of week two. Halfway there!  Take a moment to tweak your plotline a little. For you pantsers—those who don’t outline but write by the seat of their pants—revel in the progress you’re making while the outliners tweak.

Happy writing,

Donna

How to Start a 1924 Model T

Hello,

Have you ever wondered how to start a Model T?  One of my characters would do well to watch this movie.

This video "shows steps required to safely start any Model T Ford built between 1908 and 1927 using hand crank or electric starter" Click here to watch how it is done.


You never know when you might need this knowledge.

Donna

Day Thirteen Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day thirteen in our writing challenge.

November 13: As you bring your characters through one disaster after another, be sure to show us how the character is growing. What the character once thought was their goal may be changing now as the character changes. So in our romance, perhaps the heroine wanted to get married because all her friends are getting married and she feels left out. However, as she goes through the struggle to meet a man, perhaps she realizes that marriage is not going to make her feel like she belongs unless she does belong. So, she needs to undergo some changes within herself if she’s going to accomplish her goals.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Twelve Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day twelve in our writing challenge.

November 12: Today you may well pass 20,000 words. You’re 40% of the way there. What else can you throw at your characters to create tension between them and within themselves? I’ve heard this process described as: get your character up a tree, out on a limb, then saw off the limb. Timber!

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Eleven Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day eleven in our writing challenge.

November 11: Okay, so technically today is a holiday. Take a few minutes to thank a veteran and remember those who have given their lives for our country. Then get on with the writing.

Happy Writing,

Donna

Model T's

Hello,

Today's feature is that of the Model T's. This car was designed to drive over dirt trails, ford creeks, and drive on city streets. Henry Ford manufactured this car in Detroit. It changed the face of American transportation.

I loved this video, absolutely fascinating.

Click here to watch the video. It is so worth the trip.

Donna

Writing Challenge Day Ten

Dear Readers,

Today is day ten in our writing challenge.

November 10: Today should take you to about 17,000 words. That’s a huge milestone. If you hadn’t committed to NaNoWriMo, you’d have probably spent three months getting this far. Give yourself a pat on the back—after you meet your word count for the day.

Happy writing,

Donna

Writing Challenge Day Nine

Dear Readers,

Today is Day Nine of our writing challenge.

November 9: By now you should be getting ready for another incident that pushes your hero/heroine forward in the quest to accomplish their goal. Let’s say you’re writing a romance, and the first incident was the hero and heroine meet and she overhears him ridiculing her best friend. She confronts him, tells him what a jerk he is, and huffs off. Since then, all he can think about is this spirited woman who’ll have nothing to do with him, and all she thinks about is the way his eyes captivated her. Your second incident could be she meets her brother and kisses him on the cheek, and our hero sees this and thinks they are a couple. He huffs off and she doesn’t know why.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Eight Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day eight of our writing challenge.

November 8: So take a deep breath and look over the past week. What has worked for you? What hasn’t worked? Amplify what worked and toss out what didn’t work. Perhaps you’ve written yourself into a corner? Don’t worry. Make a note to yourself to go back and fix that later, and keep going from here.

Happy writing,

Donna

Not Just the Facts, Ma'am or Sir

Hi,

I am featured on ACFW Colorado's site today.


Not so very long ago, I didn’t think I could write historical fiction. My excuse? I didn’t know enough ‘history’ to write a story set in bygone times.
Then I saw a photo in the newspaper of the police officer who accompanied Lee Harvey Oswald from the courtroom when Jack Ruby shot him.
And I was hooked.

Click here to read more.

I list several tips on how to write historical fiction.

Hope it gives my fellow writers some ideas for their own writing journey.


Donna

Day Seven Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day seven of our writing challenge.

November 7: Okay, so you’re ready to pull your hair out by the roots. No matter. You’re settling into a routine of thinking about your story and your characters. Even if you’re not actually typing words, you are actually writing. The more you think about your story, the easier you’ll find the writing will be when you do sit down.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Six Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day six of our writing challenge.

November 6: Nearing the end of week one, and you’re doing great. Falling behind? No matter. Squeeze a few extra minutes out of your day. Get up a few minutes early. Write on your lunch break. Delay turning on the television for thirty minutes. Stay up until you finish this chapter.

Happy writing,

Donna

A Model T Tractor

Dear Readers,

I love historical research, especially things with motors.

"Model T Ford 1927 Model T Ford home made tractor. It has two additional 3-speed transmissions and has a Model TT rear end (Truck). The plow is a John Deere walking plow modified with linkage to raise and lower the plow. My dad purchased this tractor in 1941 for $15.00 "My older brother is running the tractor" (This homemade tractor was used to plow Victory Gardens during the depression)"  Click here to watch

Many a farmer made his own equipment and used what he had on hand.

Enjoy,

Donna

Day Five Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day five of our writing challenge.

November 5: As you arrive at the point where you not only dangle the goal but actually slap your character up the side of his/her face to get their attention, get ready for them to try to convince you to give up this foolish notion of telling their story. They will try, but you will persevere.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Four Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day four in our writing challenge.

November 4: Regardless of which genre you’re writing, you want to build some tension in the story. Tension is not just people shouting at each other, or people getting shot at. Tension happens when your characters are not getting what they want. Figure out what the character wants then dangle that goal on a stick in front of them, just out of reach.

Happy writing,

Donna

Day Three Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day three of our writing challenge.

November 3: Hopefully you’re following the plot outline you’ve done for your book, so about now, you should have at least introduced your characters, let us see their ordinary world, and introduced some flaw they want to change. Good work!

Happy Writing,

Donna

Day Two Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is day two of our writing challenge.

November 2: Day 2. Now your challenge is to sit and write and not read what you wrote yesterday, which I guarantee you’re going to hate if you do. Did you manage your 1666 words yesterday? Great. If you wrote more, that takes some pressure off for today. If you were short, so what? Write what you can. You will have more productive days as the flow starts and you’ll make up the difference later.

Happy Writing,

Donna

Clinging to Grace

Hello Readers,

Today's featured author is Heidi Chiavaroli.

Clinging To Grace

Call me crazy, but there’s a part of me that loves rules. I’ve always depended on them to create the boundaries that put me on the right side of the track. As a child I rarely found myself in trouble. I knew the rules, and I followed them. My parents and teachers praised me. I praised myself. After all, I was “good.” Not like those other kids who didn’t know when to shut their mouths or do as they were told. Of course I wasn’t perfect—who is? But I was good, certainly better than most.

This attitude lasted through my teens and into my twenties. I served the church with zeal. I married my high school sweetheart. I was sweet. I was nice. I was accommodating.

Then I had children.

Slowly, like the work of a termite gnawing on wood, the outward good I’d so often displayed with little effort began to disappear. My true heart was revealed to me. With two demanding toddlers only sixteen months apart, I began to crumble. I was no longer sweet or nice. And accommodating? Forget it.

I think the parable of the lost son demonstrates my dilemma. I’m convinced the editors who often title that story in our Bibles have it wrong. There’s not just one lost son in the parable, there are two. The elder brother did everything right. He worked hard, obeyed his father, never asked for anything. But the true condition of his heart is revealed at the end of Christ’s story. The older brother is not happy when his little bro comes home. He is angry. Bitter. And at the end of the story, who is in the grand feast—the feast that symbolizes the very joy and fellowship of God’s kingdom? It is the younger son, the rule-breaker. And which son is stubbornly sulking outside? Lost? I can just picture the older son looking through the window at the warm light of this heavenly party, bitterness eating at his insides.

It’s scary how much I see myself in this older son. I am lost. I am dependent on my good works. I am the very person that Jesus scolded the most—a self-righteous Pharisee.

I wonder if I ever would have seen the truth if it weren’t for my children. God showed me my heart, He showed me my hypocrisy. He showed me death.

And then, my Savior showed me glorious life. I am a lost prodigal. Lucky for me, God is in the business of saving that which is lost.

I threw off my cloak of bitterness and ran into the feast. I gave Jesus my heart and He gave me grace. Living this way is pure, wonderful freedom. Surrendering to God is freedom. I don’t have to depend on rules to define my goodness or my worth. All I have to do is depend on Jesus, on His worth.

And so I cling—lovingly, recklessly, doggedly—to grace. To Christ’s righteousness, and not my own. I’m forgetting the rules and what it means to be “good.”

Call me crazy, but a bigger part of me loves grace.

 

Biography

Heidi Chiavaroli writes history woven in grace. Her current manuscript, Tears of the Outcast, finaled in My Book Therapy’s Frasier Contest, semi-finaled in ACFW’s 2012 Genesis contest, and won the 2011 Historical Category of Novel Rocket’s Launch Pad Contest. Heidi lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. You can find her blog at here.

Day One Writing Challenge

Dear Readers,

Today is the first day of the NaNoWriMo Challenge.

November 1: Day 1 of the challenge. The goal today is to simply start. If you’re planning to write every day this month, you’ll need to average 1,666 words per day. That may sound daunting, but here’s the really hard part: write the words, don’t worry about editing them. Who cares if they are garbage? The goal is the word count.

Happy Writing,

Donna